Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Carlsbad organization to select the appropriate technologies and adhere to leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and returns top business value. Progent can provide support services that go from as-needed expertise for helping you past occasional IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Carlsbad, California businesses to with any aspect of creating a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, Call Desk augmentation, data security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure needed to support an at-home workforce can be especially challenging if you have to accommodate a mix of personal equipment like desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from various manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background providing online support for both outdated and modern technologies in virtual office solutions allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Services available from Progent to assist your company to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to create a secure tunnel for authenticated remote workers to use IT resources situated at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent can help your company to configure and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a wide range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a telecommuter to see and use a remote PC's desktop. This provides IT managers significant control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online consulting for integrating home routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting the whole family and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to access their router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these problems by delivering services that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless AP integration help.
  • Internet connectivity solutions affect the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Business-critical applications might require redundant Internet access in case the normal connection fails. Progent offers expertise for picking ISPs, choosing sensible service offerings, and configuring fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the company PBX environment to include teleworkers is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice platforms are popular with SMBs to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer high-level support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers high-end telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications deployed across the network. CUCM supports other combined media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, visit Cisco Unified CM consulting services.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice products, visit CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from leading technology companies enable virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both onsite workers and at-home workers. Many organizations utilize multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent can help your organization to maintain your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the engagement of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that enables presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to set up and manage Skype for Business client software to support your at-home employees. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco Webex as well as for additional video conferencing solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with features that include IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these products and assist you to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for exchanging data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial releases and can help businesses to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize the effectiveness of your at-home workforce.

SharePoint Server Deployment Experts for At-Home WorkersSharePoint utilizes web sites to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven access to data, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build protected web portals that enables remote workers to view and edit aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, see SharePoint integration and development consulting.

Exchange Deployment Experts for Remote WorkersExchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting services, go to planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange Server.

Microsoft Onedrive Integration Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can access them safely through a web browser. Provided with Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote employees to jointly author documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you go back online. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers fast and affordable online support for helping businesses to build, maintain and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network models that combine physical data centers, teleworkers, branches, and public cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure Integration for TelecommutersMicrosoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud services that allows you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure connections to Azure for remote workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity applications and cloud services offered by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles intended for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable remote contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to evaluate the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your telecommuters to achieve top business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate smoothly with local Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed help to get you past challenging IT roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have easy and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for Remote WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Integration for TelecommutersGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your business to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage, and simplify identity management for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also help your business to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud environment. For information, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Remote Workers
A sudden, enterprise-wide transition to a from-home business model, which could be motivated by a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to provide an economical, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from initial help requests through ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to track or revise their active tickets, add information, and upload screenshots and relevant files. Desktop support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent makes available the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with advanced problems. For more information, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small companies.
  • Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service enables you to supplement your current Help Desk Call Center staff by splitting delivery of Call Center support services seamlessly between your in-house IT support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of PC support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support model based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for handling service requests and trouble tickets, assigning responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to deliver world-class IT support to your at-home employees, go to Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home staff members typically use their own computing devices and usually operate in a poorly secured physical environment. This situation increases their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires careful deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the creation of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity support consultants can help your business to plan, deploy and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards critical information assets in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by on-premises users and by at-home workers, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Modern firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage different permissions to various classes of users and to scale your network and adjust your security as your business evolves and as network attacks grow more complex. Progent supports both current and legacy security appliances from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management for TelecommutersOnline Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers used by remote workers and either reject or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is put on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the targeted device from the corporate network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain secure even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for At-Home WorkersProgent's Duo authentication services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, when you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized for this added form of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several verification devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can evaluate the exposure of your network to all classes of outside and internal security threats for a network that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can deploy online, automated security analysis scanning for quickly and economically uncovering a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be provided by network security experts with top credentials such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your processes and governance policies and review your WAN infrastructure to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper describing key things to concentrate on for protecting a network that supports telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
The field of Data Protection involves saving and recovering critical data so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage failures due to hardware issues, software hiccups, user mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and manage in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from experts familiar with a broad array of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and centralized management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often anticipate circumstances that require a quick switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning specialists can assist your business to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager provides a unified platform for protecting corporate information by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. Network admins managing the endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and authenticate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how home-based workers share data, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For information about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the devices of your telecommuters, go to Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. For details about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing an efficient work-from-home solution for your Carlsbad, California business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.